Notre Dame secondary has been decimated this season if the report is true. They would now have lost 2 starters (Lo Wood) and may have 2 freshmen starting in the secondary next week. Elijah Shumate looked good for them last night, but you never know when inexperience will rear its head.

You don't blitz a QB that has legs like that. A blitz works when you contain and then collapse on the QB. Fast athletes will be able to find that small weakness and run that direction. That is why I think Denard should get the Heisman. He scares defenses even the defenses at the top of the heap.

It looks like that's not so much the case as in previous years. He's got some big targets and more importantly, it looks like he's starting to respond to pressure and coverage with his legs.

I like his chances against the old "stack the box to stop Denard" strategy this year given the above and that he looks quite a bit better making reads and throwing the ball. If he keeps calm, he can be a DC's worst nightmare.

It looked like he could have been hurt but he played the rest of the game and was fine. We have to take advantage of their secondary with the TWO DEVIN's. There is no way they can defend that size and speed.

They're in trouble. They dominated sparty, but teams that can pass the ball (USC, Oklahoma, Stanford, Michigan, ect) will put some hurt on them. "Going deep on 1st down!" After yesterday I wonder if Pitts offense might even show up like they did against VT.

It's a pretty big stretch to put M's passing game on par with that of USC, OU, and Stanford. Our passing-game strikes fear in the hearts of few. The good teams that have beaten us have done so by stacking the line and forcing Denard to throw. The ND game will be won or lost on the ground.

our passing game would of worked against Bama if we weren't playing against future NFL 1st and 2nd round draft picks. against the young... I repeat that very young back 4 of ND I think we will have a field day

Even if Denard = Maxwell as a passer which I think denard is actually superior looking at maxwell. Denard > Maxwell with his legs, so thats 1 more person ND has to account for with someone from there back 7. they want to load the box fine. they will be 1 on 1 with no help over the top against Devin and Devin. oh you want to give saftey help to your corners? ok well then denard is going to run wild.

This was basically the game plan aggainst Bama and it was solid, problem is Bama has a bit better of a secondary (ALOT BETTER) so it didn't work

The key to beating ND next week is offense, specifically passing offense. Gholson is good, but ND can't go score for score. Purdue almost edged them in South Bend, so Michigan should be able to. Defense is important, but both Purdue and Sparty held ND to 20, and they were tied at home against Purdue until Rees came in for the final drive. ND is beatable, especially now that Slaughter got hurt again. Surprisingly Purdue and State had very similar numbers offensively, (roughly 190 yards passing, under 100 rushing, 15 first downs) but with a very different result (17 points versus 3).

Denard and Borges...we will see what they learned. They will, and by they I mean ND as well as Michigan State ( depending on what happens earlier to some degree) force Us to prove we can pass first in accordance with the RollTide Dictum.

I believe that bubble screens, Norfleet, and Dileo will be the difference.

Denard and Borges...we will see what they learned. They will, and by they I mean ND as well as Michigan State ( depending on what happens earlier to some degree) force Us to prove we can pass first in accordance with the RollTide Dictum.

I believe that bubble screens, Norfleet, and Dileo will be the difference.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as ND has a weak secondary = we can simply pick them apart through the air. ND didn't need strong DBs last night because its d-line didn't give Sparty time to throw. Fortunately, M's offense appears to be better and less predictable than Sparty's. And now M has seen some (though surely not all) of ND's tricks. But still. If ND's d-line is as nasty as it seems to be -- emphasis on seems -- M's offense will have a tough time.

But it's not as simple as what you're saying, either. ND blitzed Maxwell mercilessly because he's a statue. Teams do not blitz us that much. Even Alabama rarely did. What they will probably do is try to stay home on the edges and keep him in the pocket. He may not find a lot of running room but he should have time to throw.

Yes, of course it's true that Denard has better scrambling and pocket-presence talent. But the advantage still goes to teams that get in his face and force him to throw on the run. Because that's when he goes tacopants. ND's line is better and faster than it was last year. And I don't think we can rely on the fact that our current band of receivers will bail us out via Hemingway-esque hail-mary grabs.

I really don't think ND's going to be gameplanning to get Denard out of the pocket. The last thing they want him to do is get out in space. They're going to want him to stay put there, just as Bama did. I'll be very surprised if they blitz much, aside from a few obvious passing downs.

As for the jump-ball throws, don't forget that it was Gallon and Roundtree that caught two of our TDs against ND last season. Gardner and Funchess show some ability to make plays in the air as well.

That's what it comes down to. While our O-Line hasn't done the best job in the world in the run game, in pass protection, they've been pretty good so far. So hopefully it can hold up against blitzing LB's long enough for Devin Squared to get open

I think that's the one aspect of the team that people aren't giving enough credit to, pass protection. Sure, Bama's philosophy wasn't to sack the quarterback, but they did blitz in ways that collapsed the pocket quickly to force quick throws and cut off running lanes. I'm not sure if that'll be ND's approach, but it should be.

Regardless, It'll be interesting to see how good or bad ND's secondary is as they haven't really been tested yet. Michigan obviously needs to run the ball, but they'll have to execute in the passing game to loosten up the defense. I'm pretty confident that the line will be able to pick up blitzes well enough to give Denard the time to throw. Hopefully he and the receivers will execute.